Command to get back to the login screen?

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Level 1

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Command to get back to the login screen?

I am trying to help a friend get their data off of an iMac with a failing hard drive. My friend does not remember the login in information so I went through some tutorials. I logged into single user mode and ended up trying to bypasss the admin login screen using this command rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone. I tried to setup a new admin acct but the system hangs on the wireless/internet setup part. Now she calls me and tells me that she has the login information, the only problem is that everytime I start the computer it takes me through the setup and I have no way of getting to the login screen.

Is there any command that will get me to load up the login screen?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Jan 22, 2013 11:17 AM

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Answer 1

BobHarris

Level 9

53,459 points

Jan 22, 2013 6:18 PM in response to allstarfung

How about going in via single user mode and adding /var/db/.AppleSetupDone. You will have to do the same tricks to make the disk writable.

/var/db/.AppleSetupDone will look a bit like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList- 1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Address</key>
        <dict>
                <key>City</key>
                <string>xxxxxxxxx</string>
                <key>Company</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>Country</key>
                <string>840</string>
                <key>ExistingEmailAddress</key>
                <string>xxxxxxxx@yyyyyyyyy.zzz</string>
                <key>FirstName</key>
                <string>xxxxxxxx</string>
                <key>IntlPhoneNumber</key>
                <string>+1 (null)</string>
                <key>LastName</key>
                <string>xxxxxxxxxx</string>
                <key>StateProv</key>
                <string>XX</string>
                <key>StreetAddr1</key>
                <string>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</string>
                <key>StreetAddr2</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>ZipPostal</key>
                <string>xxxxx</string>
        </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

where you provde the xxxxxx values with the answers to quesitons the setup script would have provided.

After creating the file set the permissions as follows:

/bin/chmod 600 /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

/usr/sbin/chown root:wheel /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

/bin/ls -l /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

-rw------- 1 root wheel - 780 Dec 2 2011 /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

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